Safety apparatus for railways.



UNITEDSTATES FATENT OFFIOE.

`GRANVILLE T. WOODS AND. LYATES WOODS. OF NEw YORK, N. Y.,

ASSIGNORS To GENERAL-ELEOTE1O COMPANY, OF SOHENEO- TADY, NEW YORK, A GOEFOEATION OF NEw YORK.

' SAVFEVTY APPARATUS FOR RAILWAYS.

Specification ofLetters Patent.

Patented Oct. 16, 1906.

Application filed February 19. 1904. Serial No. 194,449.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, GRANVILLE T. WOODS and LYATES WOODS, citizens of the United States, and residents of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Apparatus for Railways, of which the following is a specification.

rPhe object of our invention is to provide a new and improved construction of engineers air-brake valve and other apparatus, whereby the driving power will be cut off and the brakes will be instantly and automatically applied throughout the train when the hand of the engineer ceases to control the engineers valve-#that is to say, the lever of the engineers valve must always be held by hand to prevent the efforts of a spring or other suitable power from causing the automatic setting of the brakes. ln some cases the motive energy of the train may be cut off practically simultaneously with the setting of said brakes. The motive-energy-cut-oif action and the brake-setting action may both be influenced by said spring at the en ineers brake-valve. It will be observed t at by the use of said arrangement railway travel will not be fraught with the danger (which has been common heretofore) of an accident to the train when the engineer become disabled in any manner while the train is run ning.

' 'le capable of more general application, our invention is especially designed for use in automatic air-brake systems of well-known standard types.

To more clearly understand our invention we refer to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of said engineers air-brake valve, the power-cut-off device, &c. Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are diagrammatic cross-sectional plain views taken at line N, Fig. 1, showing portions of the pipes, the ports, and valve A.

Referring now to Fig. 1, B is the body of the engineers valve, evice, or apparatus. C is the hand-lever, which is afliXed to stem D. Such stem passes through said body B, through a valve contained therein, and -through spring E. One end of spring E is secured to Said stem at I, while the other end is attached to the body B at J. Pipe F communicates through valve 18 to the exhaustopening. Pipe G communicates with the train-pipe- Pipe H connects with the main reservoir. ervoir are not shown. The power-cut-oif device K at Fig. 1 has a tubular communication (through L) with pipe G. The power-cut-off device K contains within its body such de vices as are shown at K, Fig. 6. The latter devices are as follows:. a piston or plunger 6, a piston-head 7, and a spring 24, which surrounds the piston or plunger 6. To theend of said plunger 6 is secured a contact device M, which when our invention is used on a steamlocomotive will automatically close the throttle-valve; but when our apparatus is employed on an electric railway car or train the contact device M makes or breaks conand 5, respectively. Said wires 4 and 5 may be a part of any circuit influencing the driving-motors. Therefore when contact devi ce M separates contacts 2 and-3 the motors are then rendered idle. Figs. 2 to 6, inclusive, being taken at line N, Fig. 1, are intended to show the ports which lead to the various pipes and also the valve which controls said ports. I

In Fig. 2 a plug-shaped valve A (whose movements are controlled by the stem D) any two appropriate ports in communication with each other when so desired, or the trainpipe port 13 may be automatically connected exhaust port 16 may be, automatically caused to communicate with each other. Either of the latter two connections may be incidentally caused when the engineer or motorman becomes disabled. It will be noted that ports 13 and 14 are permanently connected together through pipe 9, and ports 15 and 16 are permanently joined through groove 10. Such construction is provided so that should the engineer or motormanbecome disabled and fall either forward or backward such movement would cause one of the train-pipe ports and the appropriate munication with each otherthat is to say, a forward movement of the body of the disabled engineer or motorman would place the valve and ports as shown in Fig. 4, while a one of the exhaust-ports to be placed in com-1 The train-pipe and the main resnection between contacts 2 and 3 of wires 4 K.

has a depression 12, which is adapted to place to eXhaust-port 15, o1 trainpipe port 14 and i TOO .backward movement of such body would pull the valve to the position shown in Fig. 6. If the hand of the engineer or motorman failed to maintain its control of lever C, spring E would throw such lever to the position shown in Fig. 1, and then valve A would be in the emergency position shown in Fig. 4. At 50 51, Fig. 1, are stops which limit the travel of lever C and valve A. The device K in Fig. 2 has a tubular communication (through pipe L) with train-pipe G. Said device K is preferably constructed in ythe manner in which the quick-action brake apparatus is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the patent granted to George Westinghouse January 24, 1888, and numbered 376,837. Such apparatus when free from the brakes is adapted to make a snap or quick break in the motor-circuit through contacts 2, M, and

3, and thereby prevents an arc at said contacts when the motor-circuit is opened while power is on. In Fig. 2 of the present case valve A is shown in the running position.

Fig. 3 illustrates valve A just connecting ports 13 and 15. This is the service position of said valve.

Fig. 4 illustrates valve A in an emergency position, ports 13 and 15 being connected through 12. At P a trip-valve, with its lever 21 and exhaust 22, is illustrated. Lever 21 may be tripped or actuated by any suitable means and in any suitable way and operated from a distance or in case of an accident to a car or to the train, such as when a car-wheel leaves the rails, lever 21 will be tripped, and thus cause the train-pipe air to escape through valve P and exhaust 22, and as one of the, quick and sudden circuitbreakers (such as shown in Figs. 2 and 6) is in practice connected to pipe L the motor-circuit will be suddenly opened and the brakes will be automatically set.

Fig. 5 shows valve A in the brake-release position, the train-pipe port 13 being connected through 12 to the main reservoirport 23.

Fig. 6 illustrates valve A in another emergency position, the train-pipe port 14 being connected through 12 to exhaust-port 16.

The device K consists of a cylinder 8, a

piston-head 7 therein, a piston or connectingrod 6, attached to said head, a spring 24,l which surrounds rod 6, a knife or bar con` tact 25, which is controlled by rod 6, and Contact 25 is adapted to make tacts 2 and 3. Spring 26 suddenly throws contact-bar 25 away from contacts 2 and 3 after spring 24 causes contact-bar 25 to bel moved a certain distance because of the reduction of the air-pressure in the train-pipe. It should be understood that when such apparatus is used as that illustrated in Figs.1 and 2 of said patent granted to George Westinghouse January 24, 1888, and numbered 376,837, care must be taken not to have the motor-circuit broken directly by movement of the brake-piston rod or the brake-levers moved thereby, because a slight leakage in the train-pipe may cause the brake-piston to move, and thereby slowly separate the contacts (such as 2, M, and 3) in the motorcircuit, and thus destroy each contact by the formation of an arc at each contact-point. When a single car is to be equipped electrically, there should be one engineers airbrake valve at each end of such car and one motor circuit-breaker under said car. During the operation of an equipped car or train each valve (except the one near the motormans hand) corresponding to valve 18 (in exhaust-pipe of Fig. 1) must be kept closed. To move valve A from the position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 6, the handle C, Fig. 1, must be turned in the direction of the hands of a watch. Such movement of handle C winds spring E.

We do not vlimit ourselves to the construction shown, because many changes may be made without departing from the spirit of our invention. We may arrange the power-controller so that either a direct or a retrograde movement thereof will cause the brakes to be set and the power to be out off in case of the disability of the engineer or motorman.

We claim as our invention- 1. In a railway ap aratus, a device constructed and arrange to assist in governing the movement of a car and adapted to be con stantly under the control of a motormans hand and having a handle or lever adapted to be used in connection with said hand control, mechanical apparatus constantly acting upon said device to oppose said control of the motormans hand and air-brakes adapted to be brought into action by the movement of said handle or lever and independently of the direction of such movement.

2. In air-brake apparatus, an engineers or motormans valve having a handle by which said valve may be caused to move back and forth over its path, a mechanical device which acts upon said valve to set the brakes, a ort in said valve and moving therewith, two Xed train-pipe ports, one of such ports communicated withA said valve at one end of its path while the remaining port leads to said valve at the other end of said path,A and two exhaust-ports, one for each of said train-pipe ports, the appropriate two ports being adapted to be brought into communication with each other and cause the brakes to be set if the engineer or motorman becomes disabled many manner.

3. An engineers valve having a running position and brake-applying' positions on opposite sides of the running position, and

umeans for automatically moving said brakevalve into one of the brake-applying posi- V tions upon release of the valve-handle.

4. An engineers brake-valve having a run- IOO IIO

ning positionand brake-applying positions on opposite sides of the running position,

' applying position when it is moved toward a brake-applying position from the running position.

5. An engineers brake-valve having a run ning position and brake-applying positions on opposite sides of the running position, a spring tending to maintain the brake-valve in one of the brake-applying positions, and

means for preventing the movement of the I5 brake-valve from passing from either hrakeapplying position when it is moved toward a brake-applying position from the running position.

Signed at New York, in the county of New 2o lYork and State of New York, this 5th day of GRANVILLE T. VOODS. LYATES WOODS.

February, A.

Witnesses:

J. L. CRoFT, W. ANDERSON. 

